Two Issues with iSilo for BlackBerry 5.20

[Vaesse]

I have been a long-term registered user of iSilo for Palm OS (since version 3.35). In fact, it was hearing that iSilo was available for BlackBerry that finally pushed me over the edge into getting a BlackBerry (something I had resisted for a VERY long time).

In typing this post, I found out that I am actually dealing with two upgrade factors. Not only did I switch devices from Palm to BlackBerry (so I'm not as familiar with the controls), I've also upgraded the software two whole versions. However, that being said, there are two issues I want to resolve, if possible.

For Reference:
I was using iSilo 3.35 on my Palm Tungsten E.
I am now using iSilo 5.20 on my BlackBerry Curve 8330.

1. It takes a very long time to load my document list (my BlackBerry times out--to standby mode--several times each time I try to load a list). Now, admittedly, I have quite a few documents. But I didn't have any significant load time issues on my Palm (it wouldn't load instantly, but it didn't take more than a few seconds either). And it would be my hope that since my BlackBerry supports a larger memory card, I could add even more documents to my "carry-around" list. My best guess is that for some reason the ability of iSilo to "remember" what was on your list, checking only for new items, requiring a menu option to remove out of date items has been removed from this newer version. If that's the case, I'd love to have that feature back!
   
2. Though I've tried several times, it seems that my attempts at applying categories don't stick. I have tried both (1) by scrolling to the document in the main list, clicking the menu button, selecting File, selecting Categories, and choosing the appropriate category before backing out and (2) by opening the document, clicking the menu button, selecting Edit, selecting Categories, and choosing the appropriate category before backing out. The first attempt I made yesterday (using some of each method) seemed to work briefly, but going back into the program today, all my categorization has been lost and they don't seem to stick even briefly now. It is my hope that categorizing my documents would help ease the load time issue somewhat as instead of loading the whole list, I could load only the category of interest to me, besides simply offering better organization of my documents.

I love your program. I love the ability to have a document in more than one category at the same time (something I'd wished for in my old version)! I love the ease with which I can take HTML pages and turn them into easy-to-read documents on my mobile device. I'm just trying to see if I can make this work for me on my BlackBerry... maybe going back to an older version is my solution, if no fix is eminent.

While I wait for a response, I think I may just try installing the newest version of iSilo on my Palm and seeing if that provides any insight. Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

[Vaesse]

I installed iSilo 5.20 on my Palm and it works beautifully. It loads quickly (faster than the old version did) and categories seem to stick (time will tell if they disappear as they did on the BlackBerry).

Does the Palm Tungsten E have a much faster processor than the Blackberry Curve 8330? Is there some other reason why there is such a dramatic speed difference between the two devices?

EDIT: A few more details after more exploration. The documents marked as "new" seem to be the category problem. They don't lose the "new" icon even after I open them and they won't accept categories. For me, that problem starts fairly early on in the document list (in the D's). The documents that are NOT marked as new have accepted categories and can accept changes in categories. It's almost like they're marked read-only or something so they won't lose the new flag or accept any category flags. The speed issue seems focused entirely on loading the document list. This happens any time I change views and sometimes results in failure (not loading anything) on the recently viewed documents list.

[iSilo]

The Tungsten E has a processor speed of 126 MHz, while the BlackBerry Curve 8330 has a processor speed of 312 MHz, so the BlackBerry's processor is about 2.5 times faster. However, the problem is that third party applications on BlackBerry devices are limited to being Java applications, which results in a performance penalty factor of about 10, so the effective processor speed of the BlackBerry Curve 8330 gets reduced to about 31 MHz. The Palm OS Tungsten E allows for native code, so it will definitely be noticeably faster (about four times faster using the above calculations) than your Curve.

Regarding the categories or status not sticking, try increasing the amount of space allowed for settings, by going to Menu/Options/Settings in the document list view, and increasing the "Space to Use" setting to the maximum.

[Vaesse]

Thank you for your response. I understand the sluggishness issue a bit better now. I think I've found a work-around in (as much as possible) not actually "leaving" iSilo, but instead jumping to a new application while leaving iSilo running in the background. This minimizes the frequency of the list reload, and therefore minimizes the delay.

However, despite following your suggestion and allocating maximum space, even after doing a hard-reset and reinstall, I'm still not able to get categories to stick for my whole list. It seems to work for the first portion of my list (minus one document, which I'm willing to allow could possibly be it's own issue, as it's always the same document), but after I get the first portion of the list categorized, they stop sticking for the rest of the list and start disappearing for the ones that are done (this disappearing is with less consistency than the not sticking). Along with this, iSilo seems to "forget" the document settings (where I was in the document and the display settings that deviate from default) and which documents I've been using. Is there a card setting or iSilo setting that might account for this?

The other odd thing is that when I look at the file structure on my SD card where my documents are, I see a Settings folder (with a file for each of the documents I've tried to categorize (sometimes more than one per document with a ~1, ~2, etc appended) both in the Settings folder directly and in the _Cat_ sub-folder of the Settings folder. So, it seems (from my very limited knowledge) to be creating/applying the categories and settings changes, but then not reading them for some reason.

Am I the only one who has this problem (indicating a possible software conflict or a problem with my particular hardware)? I guess I can do another hard reset and try not installing any third party apps and see if that works, but it's a big hassle if it's not likely to help.

Is there any BlackBerry phone model that doesn't require Java apps and/or that's more likely to work smoothly with iSilo?

[iSilo]

The behavior would be independent of any third party apps you may have installed.

All BlackBerry devices require third party apps to be in Java.

How many document files do you have that you are trying to categorize?

[Vaesse]

I have 292 documents in my list (well under 1GB on my 4GB card, so I'd love to be able to carry more, but that's where I am at the moment). iSilo gets through 130 (more or less) before it stops showing my changes. As I said before, all of them have created files in both Settings\ and Settings\_Cat_\ which seems to imply to me that they have recorded the category settings I've applied despite my inability to see them.

[iSilo]

Give us some time to reproduce the problem on BlackBerry so that we can determine the cause. We can then report back.

[Vaesse]

No problem. It's just good to know someone is trying to figure this out for me.

[iSilo]

We reproduced the problem and found that the cause was a bug in the file caching.

We have posted a beta with the fix. Please give it a try to help us verify that you can now categorize your remaining files.

[Vaesse]

This fix appears to have solved my problem. Thanks!